Arlene POV

The next day, Harry and I sat down with a glass of wine and a pinch of salt to go over our options. We'd just been at Hermione's place with Ron's mum and dad, and we didn't get a whole lot done. There were too many kids, too much panic. Now, James, Teddy and Albus were out with Hugo and Ron- Lily stayed behind with Rose and Hermione. Without the kids, we had a chance to show just how stressed and confused we were. "So, eloping," Harry brought up tiredly, rubbing his nose. "I think that is definitely still an option. It could make all of this," he gestured at the air, "shit go away."

"True," I said, taking a sip of the wine then running my finger along the lip of the glass. "But we shouldn't have to hide. I don't want to elope unless we absolutely have too."

"I don't either," Harry agreed, taking a deeper sip of wine than me to control his temper. He'd been remarkably good about things so far- but I knew he would need to blow off steam somehow. I'd tried to get him to go with Ron and the boys out flying, but he refused, saying that we had to sort this out as soon as possible. "But what are we going to do then? Move up the date?"

"No," I said suddenly, getting a great idea. I set down my glass and sat up in excitement. "We'll just tell the press everything. They'll be no more wild guesses and stories. We'll just be kill-joys and lay out all the facts. They can analyze it all they want, but it'll stop the lies." Harry blinked, then downed his glass.

"That is bloody brilliant." He said, his voice slightly lower from the wine. Continuing with my moment of genius, I inched closer, starting to grin.

"And we could be really mean and only allow ten reporters in to the wedding. We'd interview them personally. It'd keep all of the hullabaloo out of Hogwarts!" Harry leaned forward and kissed me. When he pulled away, his eyes were dancing with delight.

"It's evil, but it's perfect. We'll only let in really nice reporters- the trashy ones will just have to get their own coverage off of them." He said, and then directed the wine back to the kitchen.

"Honey, I think we just outplayed the media." I said, and he slapped me a high-five. As we did so, the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," I told Harry, and he just grinned, ducking into the kitchen. I undid the lock on the door with a flick of my wand, then pulled the door open, and pulled up short, my good mood dying in my throat. Robert Hacker was standing on my doorstep, the man I'd lost my virginity to.

"Hey, Arlene? Can we talk?" He asked easily, and I just looked at him in shock. I hadn't seen him in a long time.

"Who is it?" Harry called curiously, snapping me out of it.

"Um, hi!" I said, and then quickly looked around, feeling my stomach drop. He'd probably already been seen by the media. Great. "Come on in, please!" I quickly ushered him inside, mentally smacking myself. "Um, Harry? We have a visitor!" I called, and he heard the slight tone of hysteria in my voice and came instantly out of the kitchen, flashing a grin but looking confused. "This is Robert Hacker. Robert, this is Harry," I introduced the two men, and they shook hands, sizing each other up.

"A pleasure," Harry said, then looked at me. "Is he a friend of yours?" Before I could answer, Robert jumped in.

"Friend? No, no, Arlene and I go way back." He said easily, sticking his hands in his pockets and smiling sheepishly. I suddenly remembered how I'd loved his easy going nature, his always calm and happy demeanor, all of it.

"Robert was my boyfriend when I got the contract with the Holly Harpies." I said, wincing on the inside, remembering how I'd told Harry that I'd lost my virginity to him but didn't tell him his name. I saw just the tiniest of changes in Harry's expression as he got it.

"I just thought I'd stop by and offer my congratulations personally. I tried your house, but it says it's been sold?" He asked me, and I winced internally again. If he'd been at my house and to Harry's the media would leap on it. Harry actually did wince, but Robert was looking at me, and didn't notice.

"I did sell it, yeah. I didn't really need it now that I'm marrying Harry." I said calmly, feeling a bit of nostalgia before it passed. Harry would never know this, but I actually lost my virginity on the roof of that house with Robert- we'd been playing Quidditch over my property and one thing led to another… Robert grinned, remembering too, but he passed it off as happiness for me.

"Congrats!" He said, and I knew it threw Harry for a loop that he sounded so honest and wholeheartedly happy for us. That's just the kind of person Robert was. "You're a very lucky man." He said to Harry, who blinked for a second, then smiled back.

"I can't believe I have her, to be honest." Harry replied.

"I thought that too, and we were only dating. Arlene really is an amazing person." He flashed me a grin, and I felt myself blush.

"Thanks, Rob," I said, unintentionally calling him by his old nickname without realizing it. I had instantly slipped back into a different time period of my life- when my parents had still been alive, I'd been on my way to professional Quidditch, and I'd actually been a bit rich. Everything had been beautiful.

"Well, I won't intrude any longer. I just thought I'd stop by and say 'Hey!', cause I won't see you at your wedding. I understand that it's going to be a madhouse." He said, and I felt a pang of embarrassment. I hadn't invited him to avoid a whole ex-boyfriend fiasco, and I saw now that that was probably a mistake.

"Thanks for stopping by, Rob, it means a lot," I said, and gave him a hug. While I was hugging him, I caught Harry's eye and jerked my head the tiniest bit towards the door. If Harry showed him out, it might seem less like I was cheating on him (that's what the tabloids would say) and more like both of us were meeting an old friend. Harry got it instantly, and we both showed him out, smiling, waving, and calling thanks. When he Disapparated, Harry carefully closed the door and rested against it, looking at me curiously.

"You lost it to that guy and you left him?" Harry said, sounding scandalized.

"What?" I asked indignantly and with slight confusion.

"He's such a good person! What happened?" Harry asked, and I felt my face fall into misery.

"My parents died. I couldn't spend enough time with him to make it work, so we split mutually." I sighed, ready for the string of questions to come. Harry took my arm and walked us to the living room couch before pounding me with questions.

"What house was he in?"

"Slytherin," I said sarcastically, and he rolled his eyes. "Rob was a Hufflepuff. Don't laugh." I added instantly when Harry's eyes started to crinkle up like they always did when he was laughing. "There is nothing wrong with Hufflepuff." I said sternly, and he nodded meekly to the carpet, still fighting down a smile.

"How long were you together?" He asked the floor.

"Almost two years," I said, and his smile died. I answered his next question before he even asked it, sensing what he was feeling. "He probably would have been the one."

"I'm sorry, Arlene." Harry said, and I looked at him curiously.

"What are you apologizing for? You didn't kill my parents. You don't even have a driver's license." That comment cracked a smile out of him, and he grinned at me, but his eyes were still kind of sad.

"I'm just so glad I have you," he said, and I hugged him, filling with happiness as he hugged me back. I felt right in his arms, not just satisfied like I had been with Robert.

"Me too," I told him, and for awhile, we just stayed like that, embracing, until I groaned.

"What?" Harry asked, peeking down at me after kissing the top of my head.

"The media is going to go nuts. They saw him at my house and ours." I said, and Harry stiffened a little.

"It's ok," He said, and I snorted into his chest, pulling away to look at him.

"No it's not. They're going to paint me as a whore." I said, my tone getting clipped. Harry looked at me a second, then his whole face lit up.

"Let's prepare our statement to the world then, shall we?" He asked rhetorically, summoning a piece of parchment, quill, and ink pot.

"Let me write," I said, snatching the quill. "Your handwriting is messy."

"Is not," Harry said, affronted, then chuckled under his breath, saying, almost to himself, "Yeah, it is."

"Ok," I said, suddenly business-like, dipping the quill into the ink and pausing. "Title?"

"Official Statement of Mr. and Mrs. Potter," Harry dictated, having done this before, and I copied it down, taking my time to make my cursive neat, and it looked pretty good when I was done. "Right," Harry said, thinking hard. "The wedding is to take place seven days from now in the Quidditch Stadium at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy." He paused so that I could write it down, and I took my time, making sure that everything was spelled correctly. "Mr. Potter felt that the best way to remember the late Mrs. Potter was to reuse her ring; she refused to put to rest with the ring on her finger. It is only fitting that her memory be carried on by the soon to be Mrs. Potter." Harry said, and I wrote it down. "In order to preserve the integrity of the wedding, the Potters will hand-select only ten reporters to be present at the wedding. The rest must remain outside of the grounds of Hogwarts." Harry finished, and I added a little swirly underline thingy at the bottom of the page to make it look official, then placed several charms on it to make it look nice and to keep the page from being edited by tabloids.

"Cool," I said, raking an eye over it, then looking at Harry. "But how do we get it out to the public?"

"You'll see," Harry said, taking my hand and leading me down the property to our mini Owlery. Once there, he called down a very regal and uptight looking eagle. Harry conjured a green silk ribbon and tied our rolled up statement closed with it, then gave it to the eagle. "To the offices of The Daily Prophet." He directed, and the bird took off, flying away at great speed. "There," Harry said simply, and I watched the bird fly away until it was only a blot against the sky.